Nothing fires up the idling basketball engine quite like Media Day does. Nothing gets those juices flowing like seeing the players that our hopes rest upon once more. The Minnesota Timberwolves aren’t quite back, but the home stretch is upon us and the breeze running through our collective hair feels fucking phenomenal.
Media Day is like the first fall leaf turning crimson. We’re not guzzling pumpkin spice just yet, but we’re starting to remember the taste and cherish its arrival. These players, front office members and coaches have been enjoying their summer away from our scrutinizing eye, but now it’s time to hear from them, rekindle with them, and embrace everything that comes with them again.
Tim Connelly: 8/10
Rolled into proceedings with a joke about hating monologues and that’s the kind of shit he has been known for. Just the kind of dude you’d like to neck a beer with. The kind of guy who clearly feels uncomfortable sitting at a podium and blowing smoke up everyone’s ass.
All of his exceptional moves — the Kyle Anderson signing, the D’Angelo Russell trade package, his recent draft night moving and shaking — are still lingering in the shadow of the Rudy Gobert bungle. There’s no escaping that and there never will be. He won’t solve that dilemma with a single presser. There will never be a gag that washes away those sins.
And yet, I feel strangely at ease with him. It might be that he seems like a great guy. It might be that the team he spent years constructing just obliterated the league. It might be because the Kool-Aid tastes so fucking good this time of year.
Chris Finch: 8/10
Always navigates a press conference with languid ease. Finchy has basketball knowledge oozing out of his pores and he makes no effort to hide it, while simultaneously refusing to flaunt it lavishly. When he talks about the team, he makes you believe, he fills you with hope, and he does it without ever brandishing his snake oil.
Most importantly, he never seems to shy away from the accusations leveled at he and his team.
He noted that they weren’t mature enough or ready enough to treat every game like it was a big one. He clearly wants to see Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns revive their offensive chemistry. He knows this team is a defensive-minded unit with work to do offensively; they need more structure and efficiency. And playing with the physical force and assertiveness that a team with Minnesota’s size should was high on his agenda.
Finch has a lot to prove this season. It’s all well and good to be the likable dad figure whose presence paints a calming shade on an often frenetic canvas, but he needs to win games and he needs his silky words to transfer into undeniable actions.
I’d love to have a beer with him, as well, though.
Karl-Anthony Towns: 3/10
He was pretty soft-spoken and dour. He’s rolled into Media Day sessions before with fire in his eyes and even more spraying from his tongue and this was the polar opposite. More paint drying than fire burning. More grass growing than anything to put a bolt of lightning into the basketball soul.
Towns Clearly thrived with the Dominican Republic national team this summer and that World Cup tournament has set a platform for him to succeed this season — both physically and mentally — compared to his stop-and-start summer and season last time around. Aside from that it was a bunch of straight down the barrel answers that lacked any real substance.
If boring as bat shit pressers lead to huge seasons then Towns is about to monster the league.
Rudy Gobert: 8/10
He’s too big for that little tiny fucking table. Let’s get that out of the way first and foremost. He took half an eternity to wriggle his big ass limbs under that thing and it’s hard to imagine him being comfortable anywhere when he is the size of a mountain.
He’s always honest when he speaks to the media, though. Never the scintillating quote that some others are but he comes off as someone who enjoys talking about basketball and that’s all you can ask from a player.
The big fella complimented KAT’s underrated playmaking, noted that he and Anthony Edwards grew a lot during the season but aren’t close to being the finished product, called out a reporter for a bit of truth-bending about his World Cup appearance, and committed openly to expanding his flexibility defensively within different coverages.
The two most crucial points of his presser were when he acknowledged that he had a poor season by his lofty standards and admitted that he spent his summer trying to grow as a scorer around the rim. If he can get back to his old self and sprinkle in a little more polish around the coalface, we will be thinking of him as an entirely different entity this time next year.
At one point he said there’s only one Rudy Gobert in the world when referring to his defensive excellence and that’s the kind of confidence that seemed like it was sapped last season. Go and win another one of those shiny fuckers next season, Rudy, make it a quartet.
Anthony Edwards: 9/10
There are very few who fit as snugly behind a microphone as they do on centerstage in an NBA game. He just gets this whole star thing. Revels in it. If you cut him open golden stardust would leak right out.
So, he does what he always does.
He hits the notes that need hitting.
Whether it was some actual tactical chatter about playing in the pocket with Rudy Gobert. Or heaping inordinate amounts of praise onto his teammates in the way he is prone to do. He reiterated that Towns shoots the piss out of the ball … in the way he is prone to do. And he thanked Steve Kerr for turning him into a madman in terms of work ethic.
It’s hard not to jump on the bandwagon when Ant is waxing lyrical. He makes you wanna build the wall and then run right through the fucking thing. He is leadership embodied and we will all surf in his glorious wake over the coming months.
Mike Conley: 9/10
In a way that sits on the opposite end of the spectrum to Edwards, Conley is a wonderful listen. If Ant makes you want to run through the wall, Conley makes you want to build the house and make it a home. He makes you want to sit in a green field and soak in the sun’s rays. He is calming and knowledgeable and silver-tongued in the best way possible.
And he looked jacked as fuck. Looked like he could pick up the table and launch it into another cosmos. Brains and brawn, the elicitor of swooning around the countryside.
“When I say give me the ball, know that I have a good intention to get this thing rolling in the right way.”
It was intriguing to listen to him talk about squeezing the most juice out of his teammates, despite their vast differences as players. Almost angelically, he uttered that quote and it kind of summed him up as a player. Someone who can be trusted to do all of the things that a team needs without commandeering the whole vehicle.
Conley said he loved being leaned on as a sage veteran but also seemed to be eternally grateful to Chris Finch for putting the ball in his hands again and letting him be him. And we love that he is him. We fucking love him and hopefully he keeps kicking Father Time’s ass for a while longer.
Jaden McDaniels: 8/10
Batted away the expected contract questions with consummate ease. Let some of that oft-hidden confidence come to the fore. Broke down the game in a way that proves how astute he is as a defender and a growing scorer. Loves Naz Reid like we love Naz Reid. Told us all that he is approaching 6-foot-11 and that’s fucking terrifying for any would-be scorer. Knows that his role as an offensive player has a ceiling within this offense but clearly feels like he can be more than what he currently is.
That’s Jaden McDaniels.
The straight-shooting interviewee who gives you enough to feast on without ever feeling gluttonous. He is often reserved and brimming with a peaceful tranquility, but this was a little bit more brashness and spunk. I’m so excited to see him play this season. In many ways, this whole thing revolves around his versatility and elite defensive exploits. We’re very lucky to have him on our podium each and every year.
Give him a lifetime contract for a billion fucking dollars.
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